A Freak Of Death
by DawiL
Summary: After the crime in which he and his family died, nineteen year old ‘jackass’freak Billy returns from his grave to avenge the murder. But the crow accompanying him however has first some difficulties to arrange with the skatepunk's nonconventional behavior


1 _A big 'thank you' to Jeff, not just_ _for his help_ _with editing my story, but also for improving it by some of his own ideas._

_As usually, all characters in the story are fictitious ones. Any similarity to real persons is none of the author's intention and neither any statement nor any opinion in this story is meant to offend anyone by it..._

_I own neither the Crow nor Jackass, but the characters used in this story._

_**A freak of death**_

**Prologue**

"_Paint your face_" the shadows seem to purr within a smile when he awakes as from a long, dreamless sleep.

_What for, and why is there so much pain growing inside? _

It makes him feel as if he went through a hurricane, torn to pieces, as long as nothing is left of the person he had been than the blazing flames of furious rage enlightening the darkness of agony.

_The shadow of a dark bird._

He can't see anybody yet though he's able to hear them clearly singing. Whispering voices chanting the melody of fear and anger and…

_Triggering off the memories of his forgotten past._

_The cold metal placed against his skin._

_An unknown ache was splitting through his head._

_The screams and the voice of a young girl that was still a child._

_It was in the darkness without a hope for relief, without a light shining through._

"My God, why couldn't I help her?" He asks while his head nearly bursts of the echo that her cries for help cause inside his battered skull.

"_A Long time pasted._" Just some sad murmur, "_It is_ _too late for people like you, however, your chance will come soon_."

He lifts his head abruptly with a gleam of unbelief in his dark, hollow eyes.

"I'm dead." A matter of fact that he realizes, although it sounds more like a question that he needs as a proof of his situation.

"_Dead, but yet alive, son,_" the voice corrects purring like a cat playing with its prey, "_too much to ask for you. But soon you won't need questions..._"

"Because I'm the answer..."

A nod of the stranger's hooded head.

"_You'll be… patience, son. It's still too early .Take your time. Remember_…"

He doesn't want to. Nevertheless, back in the shadow, where he tries to hide himself in the delusive fog of restless sleep and dull pain, the memories come to haunt him with indescribable cruelty and reopen the old, yet unhealed wounds.

"Don't ...please," he whispers powerless, his hands unable to cover his eyes from the pictures. But he's conscious that it's not just the old scars torturing him, but also the simmering anger, like the itch of a healing wound tempting him to scratch it open again.

"I can't bear…" he begs within crying.

"_Patience, son... patience... soon it will all be clear." _A promise, apart from that there's nothing left to him.

Nothing he once had.

All dead.

Except from his memories buried inside.

He senses he might be closer to Lethe as he could've imagined, but anyhow he can't yet reach it and he doesn't want to.

Therefore, he lowers his head and continues waiting, waiting for his time to come.

For vengeance, and to give it back to them, their sense of fear.

No, wait, not just a sense. They'll meet fear face to face!

A smile suddenly rises on his face, the one of a young man almost still a child, but already dead.

Desperate, of course, but he was full of hope within a strange shimmer of humor.

Soon?

How long it takes doesn't matter, they'll be sorry soon enough.

Patience? That's all they tell him while he has to subsist of their grace, as he's become more or less their pet.

Good boy. Shut up when they tell you to do so.

Patience? Why the hell should he?

He's never been a patient person.

**Chapter 1**

"Better than '_jackass_'? – You're tryin' to describe more dangerous in nicer words, right?"

Just a question, matter-of-factly posed as now, it hadn't ever done a thing to Billy McCoy if it had meant breaking his own backbone.

Earlier that day he had already watched his father, Brian McCoy, uttering some crap about the rotten lies he used to call his political goals as a conservative senator. Or short to say how to shut people up, who didn't fit in his narrow, rather bigoted way of thinking, that was in fact about nothing than the question how to gain more voters. In this world, his family just had an outside place, a nice picture to show idealized life, however the senator spent at best five hours a week at home. Then he lived more or less in his office without giving a damn neither about Billy, to whom he often even denied a relationship in public, nor Billy's nine-year-old half-sister Regan nor her Mom, to whom the senator was married since his pretty smoothly passed divorce from Billy's mother. Before that, he had more or less made his ex-wife enter a psychiatric hospital because of the nervous breakdown she had.

Just another example for the hypocrisy that the senator sported, completing the picture Billy had of his father as another one of those liars in suits who seemed to spread their hatred and lies wherever they went, pretending just to want everyone's best.

On the other hand the senator himself took his son for a '_complete useless with nothing than skateboarding on the brain, who might some time end up in the gutter or even in jail'_, something that, in fact, didn't matter to Billy as he already felt accustomed to words like this.

His father never struck him; however, he had preferred any kind of physical abuse to him, leaving him with the well-known feeling of knowing that he was a complete loser.

The only thing that Billy could do was protecting Regan, to whom her older brother still appeared as kind of an idol, no matter what their father told her, from also ending up like himself.

One of the measures, which he took of not supporting his father, consisted of turning off the TV immediately as the senator's speech against homosexual marriages and against providing job discrimination protection for homosexuals flickered on the screen.

"Hard to believe I got half of my genes from that man." Billy had thought with disgust.

About one hour later, he himself had left, however what a pity not forever, but just to go to work. Then Billy had still furious decided to threaten Mrs. Weston next-door with suing her if she called him again a – quote '_Useless criminal getting a pretty exorbitant amount of money by nothing else than instigating innocent children to damage respectable taxpayers' property by abnormal, disgusting pranks'_ –unquote.

The old woman with ridiculous pink curlers all over her grayish hair had gasped terrified, gazing at him through her old-fashioned glasses. "Think because ya doin' that damn little TV show you needn't accept common rules? ...By the way, in any case, no matter what you decide for, I swear one day somebody'll get his own back on you. And besides, if not I might kill you myself if you don't keep your fingers off my granddaughter, young man."

Not even a joke, no doubt.

"Leyla's old enough to decide on her own who she's dating, and besides," he had changed his voice for the two words, obviously imitating Mrs.Weston, "considering the fact you're planning to kill me, my lawyer'll for sure..."

Billy's bored voice had made her finally stifle an answer and slam the door behind her, but not without dropping another nasty comment "By the way, before entering any court-room you should get that awful green dye off your hair and also a proper haircut, _Mr_. McCoy."

"Have a nice day, too," he had yelled after her, adding out an idea, "and you know what? Today I'm going to put my name on the dotted line for another one of those – how d'ya calls it - damn little TV shows. That'll make nearly $4000 a month for me then ... well, before tax deduction of course, referring to what you said 'bout taxpayers. So maybe some good news for you as now I'll soon own enough money to move out and leave that god-forsaken place."

That was the reason why he now faced one of those bored network-managers, who took him usually for some naive, but anyhow useless kid; although in fact he was one of the sources that those guys got their oversized paychecks from.

"Maybe...it's not the same, but, let's say crazier... you know..."The man got lost in words avoiding a real answer. "So do you sign on now or do you chicken out?"

Forcing a laugh about that provocation in disguise as a joke, Billy put his signature at the bottom of the document, not without adding a special PS devoted to that idiotic show-off he was facing.

"Congratulations, Mr. McCoy," the man begun enthusiastically while trying to shake the young man's hand .When Billy hesitated, the man first only frowned .But having glanced over the document and the signature he finally blushed with anger.

"What the hell should that mean, '_PS: By the way, you're a bigger jackass than anyone on the show if you still haven't got that you're a jerk_'?" He bellowed furiously, waving the document in his hand as if it was some kind of flag. Meanwhile Billy left the office in the pleased mood of a man who has made the big deal without becoming anyone's sell-out.

**Chapter 2:**

"Guess who!" Billy covered Leyla's eyes with his hands while he thought again. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever met, nevertheless her riot-grrl outfit and the piercings all over her pretty face, in her lower lip, in the left side of her nose, her eyebrow and several rings in her earlobes.

"Come on, Billy leave it alone. I don't know another guy who would climb through my window instead of using the door, just because he's afraid of my Grandma." Leyla pushed his hands away, but anyhow softly. When she smiled at him, Billy realized he didn't just have a heavy crush on her, but was in love. It made him feel dizzy; even so that he didn't get the sad undertone of her voice when she said, "Big day today, hm? Guess soon I'll just have to turn on the TV to see how you're breaking your bones now, or buy an issue of _Seventeen_ to get a short glance on my boyfriend and what he's actually doing."

"Come on, I'm no superstar. Just an average kid who managed finally to earn enough money to leave home," Billy muttered. By that, he just got Leyla making a grimace, however in a cute way.

Believe me, I don't want anything else than leaving this god-forsaken place and starting to decide myself ..."

"Me too, I've also made that choice," she interfered and pointed with a nod on the boxes in which she was packing again her stuff for college. Billy watched that with displeasure, as her leaving was always the worst case scenario he could've thought of. He still could hardly imagine his life separated from hers or maybe even losing her forever by that. She had always been his only reason not to run from home, her and Regan of course.

"Without me? I'll accompany you wherever you want... Cancun, Australia...or -considering the balance of my bank account -at the moment still as far as to Detroit...or to Vegas".He hugged her and kissed her neck despite of her protest. "Then you could become my wife and..."

"You're a joker." She freed herself from his arms. "Do you really think it's that simple and I could leave everything behind me; my family, my friends and the possibility to attend one of the best colleges? It was different when we were in ninth grade and you just asked me to become your wife from one moment to another, now we're adults. We can't always go on like this, and your life won't be about skateboarding the whole time. For honest, what would you like to do then?"

"When? Right now?" Billy asked avoiding an answer. However, more the fact he was hardly trying to stifle a laughter made Leyla furious.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You can't be serious for one minute. You just gloss your insecurities by being childish, right?" However, when she noticed his startled expression, she asked with a bit of malignity, "And concerning Vegas...you just want me to become your wife, because lately you've claimed you wanted to stay a virgin till you're married, right?"

"What? When for God's sake did I say that?" Billy frowned with confusion.

"Last week! Hey, stop tickling me." Leyla didn't really try to push him away although she pretended to while Billy stated almost desperate "I must have been obviously drunk. Besides I remember your exact question had been whether I preferred sleeping with Britney Spears -if I ever met her-or staying a virgin.. Well, everything on her's silicone and …, or maybe I love you too much that I could ever cheat you."

He tried to hide his embarrassment of having confessed his love to her for the first time, but anyhow she understood and kissed him.

**Chapter 3:**

Entering home, Billy avoided any kind of noise, as he didn't feel prepared for another argument with his father yet. Nevertheless, he was conscious that there would inevitably be one when he had told him he had just gotten that job, but also wanted to move out. However, that might have been some kind of good news not just for his special fan, Leyla's grandmother Mrs. Weston, but also for his father.

Passing by his father's office, he noticed a beam of light under the door and voices and laughter from the inside. However, he believed that was none of his business. Besides he was still too caught by nothing else than the memories of Leyla's beautiful face on his mind.

Therefore, as an unavoidable reaction Billy nearly hit the ceiling of with shock when after he had entered his own dark room some small hand suddenly touched his arm carefully.

Then he heard Regan's high, obviously worried voice calling his name close to him, making all of his thoughts about Leyla disappear in a flash.

"You gave me a damn fright, little sis," he claimed while turning on the light. "I'm an old man of almost nineteen. I could've gotten a fucking heart-attack..." He interrupted himself when realizing whom he was talking to and that the dazzling light of the lamp revealed an anxious expression on Regan's unnaturally pale face.

"You shouldn't swear ... Mrs. Henson at school told us," she exhorted as precocious as a nine-year- old could be, although the shakiness of her voice showed she had something else troubling her mind more than her brother's spiritual welfare.

"Yeah, sure, your teacher's right," Billy, agreed however a bit confused by watching his normally calm sister biting her nails with nervousness. "However, didn't she also say that nine-year-old girls should already be asleep at this time? Guess she did, so what's the matter with you?"

"It's Mr. Jingles ... he ran away when I left his cage open for a minute." Regan was for sure the only girl Billy had ever known in his life, who kept a tame rat as her pet instead of being afraid of those kinds of animals.

But at the moment all of his sister's usual toughness and often almost adult cleverness seemed to have disappeared from one second to another." My best friend's gone and it's my fault," she sobbed while Billy lowered his head to be face-to- face to her. "Don't cry, Pumpkin, o.k.?" He begged her with compassion. "Jingles is for sure not off. Maybe...no wait, I'm sure he's hangin' around at Dad's office, having some swell time with gnawing furniture and documents."

A shimmer of hope suddenly brightened the little girl's face. "Are you serious? I...I have also thought about that, but..." She fixed her look to the floor to hide her shyness, "But Dad's in there ...and Ms. Shiller's, too... and remember, Dad promised he'd buy some traps if Jingles damaged anything...and ..."

"Don't worry. If Ms. Shiller's in, Jingles is for sure not. If he was, he might drop dead of her heavy perfume immediately." Billy grimaced when thinking of that overstyled young lady his father had hired as a secretary, though he obviously didn't seem to be crowded with work.

"Dad's already angry at me. So maybe it's better if I went there asking for Jingles, so Dad won't also get mad on you..."

"You'd really do that for me?" Regan's eyes widened with surprise.

"Sure," her brother confirmed his offer with a nod, although he felt sick that even Regan was afraid of her own father's moods, which had made him become a stranger to the whole family.

"You're my favorite brother!" Full of admiration, Regan hugged Billy, who tried hardly to hide his embarrassment.

"That's no worth speaking of," he stated while freeing himself. "By the way-I'm your only brother, so there's no much choice to favor another, hm?"

He walked to the door, relieved to see her so happy again that she was still giggling about his lame joke while he left the room.

**Chapter 4 :**

As usual, the door to Senator McCoy's office was closed, not just to separate his workplace from private life, but also himself from his family, whose importance he had put clearly behind his career.

Billy didn't feel like entering despite of his promise to Regan. At any time he had to talk to his father in there, another argument had started, ending with slammed doors, shouting and finally the senator claiming to be ashamed of his offspring. So for that reason both normally preferred avoiding each other as best as possible though living under one roof .And as it seemed difficult to break that habit of ignorance, Billy just knocked hesitatingly at the door.

No answer.

With no will to provoke any fight by just breezing in, Billy first thought of leaving it alone, yet he remembered his sister's worry. Her pet was her best friend for the reason that the kids at school seemed strange to her. "They never understand anything," she had told her brother once. Therefore, with this in mind, but unsure, Billy decided for simply entering.When he opened the door carefully a bit, this idea didn't turn out as a good one. No doubt the last thing he had planned to do had been catching his father cheating his wife with the secretary.

"Hey, what the ...it's not what you think.."

However, Billy had already slammed the door with an expression of an unpleasant feeling of disgust for his father growing in his stomach yet again.

"My God, that girl's at best twenty-two, three years older than me," he stated shaken. "She could be his daughter... and he has nothing else to do than having it off with that empty headed slut when his wife's absent."

"Hey, Billy, I got him!"

"Yeah, me too," Billy thought with a taste of sarcastic humor even if he pretended being unconcerned when Regan approached quickly. Mr. Jingles was sitting up on her palms.

"He hid under the couch in the living room..." She interrupted her chatter when she noticed the puzzled expression on her brother's face, some alien worry she had never seen with him. "Are you all right? You look a bit sick..."

"Nope, I'm o.k." He faked a smile, which he dropped abruptly while his father rushed towards him, still being about buttoning his unlikely messed up white shirt.

By the anxious expression on his face Billy realized this time, he was holding all the trumps for once. But it made him neither happy nor kept him from brushing away his father's hand as he tried to rest it on his shoulder -a tactical gesture to give the impression of a good relationship, something in fact non-existent.

"Honey, why don't you go to your room to play a bit with your dolls or with that awful animal- this mouse, hamster, rat, whatever..." the senator suggested to Regan, who eyed him with confusion while trying in vain to hide Jingles from him.

"Sure... why not? It's at best half past 12 a.m." Billy murmured sarcastically, but more to himself. His father got the hint and corrected his words: "I mean, go to bed immediately, young lady. It's late...And your brother and I have to talk confidentially."

Regan was already used to their constant argument, so she left obediently, not without a glance of compassion for Billy, who meanwhile didn't even notice that.

"So...guess for both of us it's kinda embarrassing situation." Brian McCoy laughed nervously, but stopped it immediately as he became conscious of the indescribable expression of disgust in his son's eyes.

"You're the only one who should be ashamed, _Dad,_" Billy pronounced the last word with a stress." _I_'m not the one, who's cheating his wife with some cheap slut."

With the intention of not having to continue that idiotic conversation, Billy went through the backdoor out in the yard, but his father followed him on the porch.

"Billy ...you misunderstood everything. I swear I still don't love anybody else than your mother..."

"For God's sake, she's not even my mother, remember? She's my stepmother- and you know that!" Billy fussed. He felt somehow like freaking out or at least screaming without any real purpose.

"Sure ...your stepmother, I know ..." Then he concentrated on looking in his son's eyes - another tactic for convincing Billy. "See, I don't want to lose her, because I love her ...So you won't tell her about my ... little mistake, will you?"

"You're not serious, right? You can't really expect me to lie to your poor wife so that you can go on with your goddamn affair behind her back? That's what you call love?"

"Billy, let me explain first." He took a seat net to his son on the wooden steps down the back-porch. "If one's married that long the relationship has changed, love's different to how it is like in the beginning... maybe like it's still now with you and- well, that girl who's disfiguring her face by all those rings all over.. - What was her name again?"

"Leyla" Billy murmured toneless with unbelief that his father wasn't even able to remember the name of his own son's girlfriend since high school. "But me, I would never try to hurt her feelings by cheating her. I'm not like you."

"Come on, I've already told you I don't want to hurt your mother." the senator began forcefully. Another attempt to find a compromise, but in vain as his son managed to cut him short. "But you did like you do with everybody! Even your nine-year-old daughter is afraid of you, because you're an insensible monster without any scruple of locking up his own wife in a lunatic asylum to get her out of his way and to marry another woman. Mom wasn't any mad, you just drove her, and right to the point she even tried to kill herself, you-"

"I don't need to listen to impertinence of that kind. Just be lucky you're grown-up, even if you act childish. If you were still a child, you'd deserve a beating for that. Anyhow, your lucky I don't want to get my hands dirty by touching some other guy's bastard child that isn't even my own."

Billy stared at him with unbelief. Despite an angry voice in which the senator had said that, the young man realized it hadn't been just idle talk, but some serious confession, however in an offending way.

"It's true. Your Mom knew a lot of guys very well, although you won't belief me as to you, I'm the bad one." Brian McCoy added, maybe with a subliminal gladness of having found something not just to offend Billy and to shut him up, but also to work off his anger." _She_ was the one cheating on _me_, even becoming pregnant with some other guy's child... It seems as if you're nothing but a bastard belonging to nobody. Guess that's you dear Mom's gift to you."

On the verge of hitting the man, he had taken for his father the whole time Billy jumped up, shouting "Don't. Talk. About. My. Mother. As. If. She. Had. Been. Just. One. Of. Your. Cheap. Whores!" Then, surprisingly, he suddenly remained unmoved as if he was reflecting what to do. Then he added "And if she cheated you, so what? Maybe she did because she knew too well what kind of a fuckin' hypocrite wanker you are."

"Yeah, his most important character features, Senator. And only in a few words," one of the dark dressed man who had hidden during the whole time in the shadows of some trees in the yard commented. He laughed, barking like a mad wolf howling to the moon while he and the others walked over to them. "Really, that boy's talent to get it on the heart of it makes me feel pretty embarrassed of my poor education. A pity I'm not such a brain, but I guess despite of it, I'll be able to read your obituary in the newspapers."

The creepy laughter still seemed to echo, haunting Billy even in the gloomy fog of unconsciousness caused by something hitting his head brutally.

**Chapter 5:**

_Screams._

_The scared sobs of a child. _

_Regan._

_He has to protect her, he has to wake up , no matter how much pain he might have to suffer from._

_He has to, but his eyelids are so leaden and .._

"Hey, wake up, man!"

Someone kicked Billy's ribs rudely without any consideration for his obvious inability to defend himself. The pain that suddenly spread in his chest was hard; it kept him nearly from breathing. However, it made him leave the gray veils of unconsciousness, though by forcing himself to open his eyes. He gasped for breath within coughing, what actually seemed to enlarge the hurt more than just keeping his breath held.

"Hope you slept well!" Again this insane laughter.

However, to Billy it didn't do a thing because he still heard Regan crying, begging for help.

"Leave her . . . please. What you're accusing me of is for sure some big mistake." the senator implored powerless .By that he made them nothing but laughs at him.

"Yeah, but another damn mistake of yours and our employer doesn't tolerate anybody trying to fool him." The speaker had been walking up and down in front of the desk while talking, but now he approached to the senator so that he was nearly even able to touch him if he had wanted to."You're a fuckin' traitor. ..Now it's time to pay for it... Hey, don't panic, nobody'll be unfair to you. After all, you're still among men of honor. Guess the choice is left to you to decide which of your children deserves to die first- Maybe her?"

The man was talking about Regan, whose trembling hand he had taken while stroking over the scared girl's blond hair. "Hi, little miss," he whispered to her in a rough voice, almost like a hungry beast, making the child's eyes widen with fear. "Don't be afraid, we don't want to hurt you, really, but maybe we'll have to. This is only your Daddy's fault, because he was really, bad." The tears rolling down her cheeks seemed to irritate him, something perhaps not included in the plan.

"Come on, stop that damn whining ". He touched her cheek; no matter what he did, she was shaking with fright. "Be a good girl- otherwise Santa Clause won't bring you any present for Christmas."

"You bastard. She's only a child." Billy coughed painfully by what he felt a disgusting taste of blood filling his mouth. Nevertheless he walked, though shaky, towards the guy who was holding his sister's hand.

However, before he could've done anything to help her, he received a punch to his face. The man's fist struck him so hard that he stumbled, another reason for them to scoff at him. "Obviously, you're not that tough as you pretend to be on TV, man. Welcome to reality."

Billy decided to hide his fear resulting of his steady growing security, that those criminals would kill them all, whatever he did. However, he'd do everything to protect Regan, no matter what it would take him. He would have given his life for hers, but he sensed that in this case this suggestion wasn't even worth the effort of it.

"Keep your dirty hands off my sister." Billy said, but meanwhile he had realized himself that he wouldn't have a chance in any fight. He felt dizzy, besides he couldn't see anything clearly. Blood, running from a wound on his forehead into his eye, was blurring his view and the burning ache of his broken ribs made it difficult for him to breath.

"Come on, kill me if you want to, but let her go, o.k.? A rotten shame you're claiming to be men of honor- if you really were you'd search for someone who's a match for you instead of threatening children. I'm an adult man, but she's only a little girl. Let her go."

"Somehow I start to like you, man; because you've still got the balls to say what you think when there's no way out of your situation. At least you're not such a ridiculous wimp as your father is.

Your kind of courage is impressing. Damn shame I've got no other possibility than killing you like the rest of your family...but it'll be an honor for me."

"No," Regan cried .She freed her hand from the man's and ran to Billy, before anyone could've kept her from doing so, and buried her head on his aching chest. He ignored the pain while putting his arm carefully around the little girl, who obviously tried to protect him, no matter what in vain…

"I want my Mommy," she suddenly cried so hard that it nearly tore Billy in pieces, to be so powerless that he couldn't console her in any way.

"Yeah, sweetheart, say good night to your brother. It's almost time to go." someone commented, making Senator McCoy interrupt his exchange of words, or better to say begging, with the spokesman of the gang .He had finally gotten that there was no worth in trying to confer with them.

"You can't do that, you...you monster. You can't ...," he yelled terrified. Then he made a confession like he had never made a similar one since ever Billy could remember. "It's my damn fault, alright. So kill me if you like .But leave the kids out of that business."

"Too sad you didn't show that kind of judiciousness earlier, senator. But now it's too late."

Billy believed having heard how his father started to cry, before one of the men aimed a gun at Regan, who was still sobbing against her brother's chest, soaking his bloodstained T-shirt with her tears of innocence, crying for her mother.

Indeed he had heard the shot and sensed the strike of the bullet, but he didn't get his sister wasn't still alive until the moment when he noticed the coppery smell, revealing him the liquid wetting his shirt was actually blood.

First, he had been convinced it had been his own, but when he saw the burst skull of the little girl, on whose head he had laid down his chin softly with his eyes closed, whispering tender words of consolation, he started crying in despair while hugging the dead body in his arms.

"You bastards, you goddamn motherfuckers ...why?" he screamed. In the hope to find any explanation for the sense of that monstrous cruelty he looked straight up to the eyes of the man, who had shot his sister and was now on the verge of shooting him.

However, he didn't find any answer, only dead emptiness.

However, surprisingly after he had tried to stand Billy's staring eyes, the man's hand holding the gun started shaking.

"Call me mad, but I can't do that. Weird thing, yeah, but that boy scares me…it's something in his eyes, reminding me…" he stuttered, but cut off short rudely by another.

"The hell, you idiot, what nonsense are you babbling 'bout? Come on and give me that damn gun. If you can't do, I will." He grabbed the weapon from his hand, aiming it at Billy.

"Sayonara, buddy. Alternatively, wait, how do they say with you guys on TV- 'Don't try this at home'? Otherwise this time it might kill you."

The bullet hit Billy suddenly with fast, unbelievable pain, while some curtain in the color of blood seemed to fall in front of his eyes, veiling everything.

"Sure, dumbass. If you had done it right", Billy said shockingly as he started to die. Then another bullet hit him.

But this time it bust his skull, putting an end to the life of, only nineteen-year–old, Billy McCoy, whose last thought concentrated on Leyla and that he was never going to marry her or at least get to phone her, nevertheless he had promised that to her earlier that night.

**Chapter 6:**

_One year later_

On a rainy evening, alike an uncrowned queen of darkness, the black crow had taken place on the headstone of William Francis McCoy 1983-2002 ,who was at the same time finally crawling from the prison in which he had been caved in for a year -the wooden walls of his coffin and the earth they had buried him in.

In that fog accompanied by monotone cold rain, there was luckily nobody around at the cemetery. If not, they might have gotten a shock with the pale creature with dark eyes, nearly mad at the unbelievable atrocity they had had to watch, digging its way out of the wet, muddy ground. The creature was moving still shaky, almost weak as if just recovering from a long sickness.

But suddenly blood begun rushing through his veins, the power that resurrected him and brought him back from where the restless souls wander around. It had only been a year, but every second, if there's any measure of time possible when you're faced with eternity, had seemed to him like ages. Ages he had to wait among those colorless, desperate shadows with whispering voices, singing their lullabies of pain and agony to calm him while he had to wait for his time to come, but he hadn't been able to rest for a second.

Never.

While he was still trying to get the rests of unpleasant, almost icy earth off his skin, although he wasn't even able to sense neither cold nor heat, the dark-winged bird sat down on his shoulder offering him a yellowed, obviously old piece of paper.

"What should I do with that?"

In fact, an article torn from the almost unreadable page of a one year old newspaper.

_...Yesterday, Senator Brian McCoy and his two children were found cruelly murdered at their own home. The crime provides a challenge to the homicide squad as the committers of crime and their motive still seem to be unknown. The police didn't want to give a statement about the closer circumstances to our reporter. However, speculations about a politic background of the crime already made, as Senator McCoy was well-known for his rigorous conservative policy, especially concerning ethic questions and the immigration act. _

_His also killed son, Billy McCoy, on the other hand was a crew-member of the often criticized yet among teenagers very popular TV-show 'jackass' and also future star of another show just being in production, for which he had signed on the day of his death, exactly one day before his nineteenth birthday._

_In addition, found dead was the senator's nine-year old daughter._

_His wife, Ellen McCoy, who had been absent in the time the crime was committed, wasn't able to tell our reporter her personal impressions concerning the crime or possible reasons. Now she is still under medical treatment because of suffering from a shock._

_Most people in the McCoys' neighborhood also didn't want to give a statement._

_Only Mrs. Elaine Weston, their direct neighbor, the one who called the police when noticing screams, was available to talk to our reporter. _

"_It's strictly unbelievable, this kind of monstrous cruelty... _

_Well, I've been living with that family for years now and I remember the Senator as such a nice, polite man. I can't imagine him having had contact to criminals... Concerning his son, it's something else. That kid had always been a troublemaker, gadding about and bringing worry to his parents." she told us, still upset about the tragedy that had happened next-door to her house..._

"That old hag, still trying to talk badly 'bout me when I'm dead." Billy murmured disgusted of the old woman's sensationalism. "If she had really been that scared, why didn't she call the cops earlier? In fact she gave a damn – like everybody!"

A wave of boiling anger and hatred grew inside him, not just for the people who had remained doing nothing, but also for the committers of crime. It made him want to torture them and letting them know how pain and real fear felt like.

"Good", that well-known voice commented, noticing the flames of anger blazing in Billy's eyes.

"That's why you I revived you. Now it's your turn."

"You needn't tell me. I already know." He signalized the bird to accompany him. "We shouldn't waste our time out here– though" He pulled the sleeve of the dark suit he wore to his grave.

"Guess I've to get rid of this ridiculous outfit first and to put on something ...more suitable before I'm gonna kick those bastards' ass."

He laughed hoarsely, more to himself than to anyone else.

Not about the joke, but in expectation of what he was going to do.

They'd make their acquaintance with fear face to face.

Fear and death.

**Chapter 7:**

Police barricade tape still sealed the front door as if the crime had only happened yesterday. Obviously, nobody had been here since that night last year, not even his stepmother, who was now the only owner of house.

Something – a memory of past days - made Billy turn his head around to the left before entering. He wanted to get a glance of the house next-door, the place where Leyla had lived with her family and her grandma, inevitable Mrs. Weston, who had already hated Billy at first sight when he had been at the age of ten and had joined his father's new family to live with them.

However, the windows were dark. The house looked different since he had left for his short trip to eternity, more decaying and somehow empty.

Perhaps she's not even still living her. She's gone...

"Who cares? You forget something .You're D.E.A.D." Billy reminded himself. "The only thing she'll get if she saw me would be a damn fright."

His palm touched the tape to remove it and he saw...

_...The police, and flashing lights. Then a male voice, "Come on people, go away, there's nothing to see." _

_The rest is lost in a girl's sobs. "Please, let me go in there.I have to.. " Leyla, no doubt._

"_Miss, you can't walk straight into a crime scene ..Please calm down a bit" the first cop in an unconcerned voice._

"_But I have to know what happened to Billy!"_

_Then an elder cop, keeping her from entering by grabbing her arm. _

"_No, please," she tries to free herself, but in vain. _

"_For sure everything will turn out all right." He tries to calm her while another one joins him, shaking his head sadly, whispering to his partner's ear, "All dead. What a mess. Hope I'll never see anything similar in my life ever again. Man, the whole place's sprayed with blood and bones and…"_

_Leyla gets his words , her eyes widen with unbelief, then she finally bursts out into tears. "Billy" she still repeats her dead boyfriend's name, though with less force than before, while the elder cop leads her away from the crime scene... _

It hurt, but he accepted the pain as a well-known company and entered his former home by tearing the tape violently off the doorframe, trying to forget what he had seen seconds ago.

He passed the corridor with its dusty wooden floorboards and climbed up the stairs in order to get to his old room. Before he had to pass the room that had been his father's office, the place where it had happened.

While walking around he felt surprised that the place might have appeared so less as a crime scene if there hadn't been those spots on the walls and the carpet, in a rusty red , the color of dried blood.

Just a soft touch brought back all the memories

_The screams_

_They still echoed in his head, haunting him like a curse. _

_I want my Mommy._

Head over heel, almost within panic, he fled the room as he hadn't felt prepared for that. He couldn't bear that yet .

Maybe he would never be able to.

Instead, he entered his room, where he changed his clothes, putting on some black baggy pants and the black T-shirt with the 'jackass" print Leyla and Regan had given him to one of his last birthdays, perhaps as kinda joke. In his lifetime, he had refused that, but now when both were gone it felt ok to wear it .That triggered off pleasant memories, reminding him of both girls all the time...

_..."Please, put it on. Please"_

"_No. I won't. That would be as if I put pictures of myself all around the room- or if Jimmy Page walked around in a Led Zeppelin shirt or..."_

"_Come on, only for a second . You'll look really good in it" Regan giggles behind her hands , Jingles like always up on her shoulder ._

"_No, I won't. I'm already handsome enough- ask that young lady there!" He points at Leyla, who grimaces doubtful. _

"_Guess you'll have to hold his hands while I'm put on that damn shirt" she whispers to Regan so that Billy can still hear it._

"_You can't do that to me! Two against one. That's unfair," he protests, making all of them finally burst out into laughter, scaring even Jingles, who uses the occasion to run away, out of the room. _

_Regan follows him immediately._

"_So if you won't be a good boy, you don't deserve the other gift." Leyla claims, pretending to be offended._

"_And what is it, maybe a cap to match the shirt? " Billy asks._

_Leyla shakes her head "No, you're totally wrong." Then she just kisses him, whispering "Happy birthday, sweetheart."_

"_Ugh! That's disgusting", he suddenly hears Regan scoffing ironically , who has returned just in the right moment to catch them kissing. "I'm telling Mom"_

"_You won't," both, Billy and Leyla, shout at the same time and run after Regan, who's too fast for them to catch her._

_However, Billy finally reaches her. "Swear you won't …or…or I'll tickle you as long as you say you will, " he tells her, pretending to be serious ._

"_No!" Regan screams hysterically within laughter, making even her mother shouting up to them, "For God's sake, what are you doing there upstairs, kids?"_

_Billy and Regan look at each other, then to Leyla, who has meanwhile reached them. _

"_Nothing," they answer in one voice, breaking out into laughter..._

After having dressed, Billy caught sight of some leftovers of the make-up he had used last Halloween for playing a prank on Mrs. Weston. But this time he didn't use it to mask his face as a zombie, but to paint his bluish-pale skin white with also some black color surrounding his eyes in a cross-shape, almost like with a clown, and some around his mouth to complete his disguise .

When he glanced into the mirror, he even felt a bit scared of himself, confronted with his own face, the creepy smile of a man who's dead yet alive.

"Fine. Am I handsome- or am I?" He turned from the mirror to the crow, who though being apparently just an animal, gave the impression of being nerved.

"Idiot, stop that idle talk. There are other things to do than fooling around."

"You're right, kill-joy. I'm already late for my big date." Without paying any further attention to the bird or its exhortations, Billy just jumped out of the window, landing on his feet in the yard.

"There's no worth in breaking your bones before you've done what you have to"

"Shut the fuck up," Billy replied, "crows can fly, remember?"

**Chapter 8:**

**Leyla rushed through the crowd , begging toneless that she would be able to leave the bar without anybody neither recognizing her nor speaking to her, or even taking her for some of the other girls working here. Those special kinds of girls. **

Despite of being for sure none of them, she always felt dirty when leaving her workplace, just by the greedy looks on her body when she was… well, she was working as a topless dancer to earn the money she needed to pay the rent for her run-down apartment. Her salary as a day-time waitress hardly sufficed to pay the** college fees and her books. **

She didn't let anybody touch her, but she had the impression of not being far away from a hooker.

"_The cruelest dream, reality_" she remembered the line of some song . "That's what finally caught me ."

"Hey, honey," Some guy close to the entrance grabbed after her arm , but she frightened back angrily. "What's your problem?" he yelled furiously, while some woman, one of those girls, scoffed, "Oh, don't pay any attention to her. That's just Leyla, our men-hating dyke. She's always acting like that, believing to be different to the others here. Hey goodbye Miss I-don't-let-anybody-touch-me" she called after Lelya, who pretended to not hear neither the man's laughter nor the girl's nasty comment. However, her hasty leaving offered the contrary.

On her way home through the notorious part of town, her feet started hurting painfully in those damn high heels that made her feel as if she had been really just some cheap slut. However, she believed that the shower she was longing for might get at least some of the dirt off her.

So absorbed in thoughts she got a fright when suddenly someone laid his hand on her shoulder. Then she heard the obviously drunken voice of some guy whispering to her ear:"You shouldn't be alone out here, lady. Why don't you come with me and we've a bit of fun together?"

"I'm no damn hooker, got it?!", she fussed furiously, but already used to questions like that. However, he didn't let her go. Instead, he moved his hand up her leg ."Don't play the Holy Virgin." His hands seemed to carve into her flesh. "Come on, you want it, too..."

However, in this moment the grasp of his hand came loose when he broke down on the pavement, unconscious because of a large wound on his head.

"Hey, that's not polite to molest a lady, man", she heard a voice, strangely familiar to her from past days.

"Billy?" She turned around abruptly, but of course, there was nobody than the unconscious guy down her feet.

"Not much longer and I'm a basket-case," she murmured, however that experience reminding her of something Billy had said once.

It had been at high school, a short time before he had dropped out.

_In English class, the teacher had asked him to read out a homework Billy had not even done as always, an essay concerning the drama Romeo & Juliet .The question was what love was to him._

"_Love?" When Billy had walked in front of the class without any notes, just telling what crossed his mind, she had first believed he was just going to utter some nonsense, or even worse, playing the clown by making a stand-up comedy out of it, but he hadn't. _

"_Love is a chemical reaction, or maybe a physical one, two people being magnetically attracted by each other. A genetic error, one soul divided in two bodies. It's to miss a person even if that person's right beside you , seeing someone's face everywhere around or even hearing the voice of the person you love when you're alone. It means being addicted to the sound of a person's heartbeat or it's maybe just the belief to have found God when you look in the eyes of the person you love."_

Those words made her finally cry so that she couldn't stand this hopeless place here anymore. She took off her torturing shoes while glancing for the last time behind her, by what she even believed having seen somebody – a dark shadow with a black bird sitting on his shoulder.

"Billy?" she asked again, but when she felt the hand of the awakening man on the ground touching her lower leg, she turned around without any further thoughts and started running.

Billy could hardly believe he had met Leyla right here at that unlikely place, letting him even guess about her lifestyle.

Then he reminded himself he wasn't reflecting about any girl, but about Leyla, his Leyla, and the dark-haired punk girl next-door to which he had fallen in love at first sight .

Leyla, who seemed so tough although in fact she was a sensitive, intelligent girl, who hadn't even allowed him to sleep with her for the first time ever before that night he had lost his life later. He could still see her peaceful face in front of him, when she had fallen asleep in his arms, so that later it had even made him avoiding any noise while dressing and leaving for not waking her up from her sweet dreams.

Now he was nothing more than a dead body. He'd never be able again to hold her in his arms, a fact that let his anger grow on those, who had taken his life away.

"Is that all you can, molesting women, you rotten bastard? If you dare touch either her or any other woman in such a manner, I'll break every single bone, believe me" he threatened the drunken man on the ground, who watched him with glassy eyes, obviously recognizing him.

"You're that dead guy…"

Then he became again unconscious while Billy murmured nerved, "Yeah, that's who I am, but for God's sake, does any damn kid in town know my name?" He set one foot on his skateboard he had taken along from home, the other foot still left on the ground.

"Let's go, birdie Nevermore. Follow me...if you can."

"Kids", the bird complained, being hardly able to follow him as it was nearly drifting in the heavy rain that had started again all of a sudden. "I still can't figure out why to bring them back. Nothing but trouble, that's all they make."

**Chapter 9:**

Though under the thick make-up nobody would've recognized him at first sight, Billy started being nervous when all eyes seemed to be on him while he forced his way through the shabby yet crowded nightclub. He even believed to hear them whispering, pointing their fingers at him, something he had always hated.

"Hey.. Don't we know each other from somewhere else?" A blond girl with almost as much make-up on her face as he had on his own, smiled seductively at him. She even touched the front of his shirt.

"I don't think so." He pushed her hand rudely away, however she didn't give up that fast.

"No, honest, you-or at least something about you seems somehow familiar to me. Maybe from another life ?"

"For sure not. I remember my last life still too well." He left her alone, not giving a damn about the women as he had found who he was actually looking for in a corner of the club: Three men sitting close to the stage with the topless dancers, caught with fascination by the women's more or less naked skin.

"Hi, guys. It's been such a long time since we've seen each other." His voice made them turn around with astonishment, although they nearly suffocated with laughing when they saw him, a dark clown with his hair dyed green, who was carrying a skateboard and a black crow sitting on his shoulder.

"From which kind of freakshow did ya run away, kid?", the one wearing an old leather jacket and lots of jewelry asked scoffing, making the one next to him, a wanna-be biker in ridiculous leather pants, nearly choke on his drink.

_He's the one who killed you ._

"The cemetery up there." Billy pointed to the direction as if he was just describing the shortest way to the next gas station, causing laughter by that ."Now it's my time to ask questions. Hope you remember me –or Regan. Do you, you bastards?"

His face nearly hit the one of the want to-be biker, who frightened away, so that Billy had to grab his collar to hold him fast. "Calling me a wimp, but wetting your –by the way pretty ugly -pants at the first occasion- yeah, for sure that's cool...You see, in contrary to you, I had a future, I had my whole life ahead, a girlfriend I wanted to marry and a family. However, you guys stole everything from me from one second to another... Why?"

The man stuttered for an answer, while another, a stupid looking bully in a hardrock –shirt, got a knife to defend his pal.

However, before he could do any harm to him, Billy had snatched the weapon from his hand.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, friend that's helpful in this situation. Hopefully the blade's sharp enough."

He tested it by cutting his palm. The wound healed immediately. A smile rose on his face.

"You know what ? I have a gift for you- just for you. " The knife dug in the man's flesh. Once, twice...until he broke down. "Have fun in hell" A final stab to his heart killed him.

"So, who's next?"Billy turned to the two others, who were too terrified to escape."You? If I remember clearly you're the one, who couldn't shoot me, but my sister." He pointed his finger to the guy with the lots of bling-bling.

"Hey, come on, I didn't do anything," Billy stated sarcastically when the man frightened away as he had just touched his chest. "Hard to believe that a monster, who's able to kill an innocent child is such a scared poor-wretch... or what about you?" He was talking about the dull one in the out-worn hardrock-shirt and army pants. "Well, I don't know exactly, but I guess you're the best friend of our Mister-I'm-too-dumb-to-shoot, who had to leave so early. The one, who finally killed me. Honest, I don't mind who to shoot first."

The one dressed as the great player wanted to escape, but he tripped over Billy's skateboard and just broke his own nose when falling down. Billy made him stand up immediately by pushing him against the stage with the topless dancers, who started screaming hysterically when they became aware of what was going on.

"What kind of a creature is that who dares to kill an innocent child, a child whose last words were a cry for her Mom?" He smashed a bottle from the table beside him on the man's skull. "I can't imagine any. Not even an animal could be that cruel. You must be less." Billy grabbed the gun that had fallen from the man's pocket during the fight, making a test shot to the criminal's shoulder.

"Wow, hadn't believed it's that easy ..in considering our dead friend here," he claimed while the man was whining down at his feet, an occasion for Billy to kick him. "Wait, for you I've got a gift, too- but this time it's not from me, but from Regan". He pulled the trigger, the shot making the man's head burst.

"Seems as if only we are left, but before I allow you to play with your friends in hell, you'll tell me where I can find your boss, ok?"

The silly was so scared that his messed-up stutter was nearly not understandable, though Billy finally managed to.

"Good boy", he said as if the criminal had been a dog doing a trick, then he got the gun and killed the man, who had killed him a year ago.

"Tell your friend that even I can aim better than he ever did. He failed his job." Billy fixed the gun to the waistband of his black baggy pants and grabbed his skateboard .He left just as unconcerned like he had entered, as in the panic that was already spreading because of the shooting, nobody cared neither about the dark shadow nor about the bird on his shoulder.

**Chapter 10 :**

The cold rain falling down from the sky didn't manage to cool Billy's skin. There was still the fire of anger burning inside him, that could only be put out by taking vengeance to get the eternal peace he was longing for.

He felt tired walking up the dusty stairs in the gloomy building, where, according to the last victim of his vengeance, he would be able to find their boss and the man with the scary, wolfish laughter.

He was longing for a rest, but he knew he couldn't take one because he didn't have the information he wanted. The answer to the question why, that had been on his mind the whole time.

Before having reached the metal door, Billy was already able to hear the voices of men. One was obviously the werewolf, who was talking to some other, perhaps his or her employer, as there seemed to be nobody else in there.

"That rotten Gothic bastard killed all of my men, every single one! And you tell me to calm down and that it isn't you fault, Mr. I'm-too-damned-rich-to-get-my-own-hands-dirty?! The fucking hell, the whole time he was telling some weird stuff about that goddamn senator's dead daughter before slaughtering each of the guys and you tell me to calm down? My God, that guy'll come for my damn soul, too!"

"As if you had one."Billy slammed the heavy door behind himself after having entered the room without any noise. "But I guess you life'll do as well!"

"You?!" The wolf stared at him with unbelief. "You're dead!"

"Yeah, that's my little handicap." Billy confessed contrited, shrugging as if he was sorry for that.

"But hey, we all have to die some time.. Some earlier, some later. A pity with you it didn't happen before now.."

"Hey, don't blame me ...blame him!" The wolf uttered his mad laughter while pointing to someone next to him, a tired looking, but somehow still handsome man, whose hair had already started becoming gray in a way as if the thing that had happened to him had been life and its troubles. Nevertheless, he was apparently only in his late forties. Now he lifted his head, glancing to Billy, who caused him to have a shocked look when he became aware of whom he confronted, the face so similar to his and those familiar, dark eyes.

_Just like his own._

"Yeah, dead boy, he's the bad guy. Kill him, not me. Mr. Will Connors here was the one who wanted to see your whole family's dead bodies. My men and I just did our job. He paid us." Convinced after that confession Billy would let him go, the wolf walked to the doorframe. But when he had nearly reached it , the man took a gun all of a sudden and aimed it at him. "But in any case I do my job right, believe me. Guess I'll have to kill you for a second time so that I can at least say I did what I got my money for, before I kill this other freak her, whose stupid ideas took my whole men their lives."

Without any other warning he shot a bullet to Billy's body, being sure it would kill him. Then he aimed at Mr. Connors, who managed to avoid the bullet, so that it just hit his chest, though causing there also a deep wound that would for sure kill him, only that it would take longer than with the fast shot aimed at his skull.

"Bye.. Maybe we'll meet again in hell." The wolf wanted to leave, but Billy kept him from leaving.

"But you'll be there before us, I guess." He said as he took the gun he had stolen from the dead criminal in the club and shot the man before he could've been able to escape.

Then, without paying any attention to the corpse like with a toy boring him, Billy walked over to the badly injured man, who was gasping painfully for breath.

"Now we've finally the time to get to know each other after such a long time ...a rotten shame that bastard there shot you before I could. But I at least want some answers." He took a seat next to the man, who was trying to hide his pain behind a sad smile.

"Guess you came for that, _Billy_," he pronounced his name carefully, by what he gave him the impression to be still the same person he had been in life yet he was nothing more than dead flesh now.

"Believe me, I never wanted anything to end up like this, but I was always full of hatred, especially on Brian McCoy, who dared to make the woman I loved not just unhappy, but finally drove her to attempt suicide.

I wanted vengeance for every time he had hurt her.

I was blind with anger when I gave those guys the order to kill Brian McCoy, who had at this time even dared to fool me in business, driving me finally to financial ruin . The anger had simmered inside me for too long, since the day she, your mother, had told me she wanted to break up our relationship to return to that bastard, who was treating her with such cruel ignorance, even keeping my own child away from me."

He paused, closing his eyes for a minute as the ache was keeping him from talking, and then he continued. "I confess, I didn't even try to get to know you, as first I was convinced I never wanted to see neither you nor your mother again at any time, though I still loved her and you, our child that she was pregnant with at this time. However, hatred guided me against everything, especially the injustice of the world surrounding me. It turned me into an angry man with a bitter heart, unable to feel any kind of love for anyone except the picture of your mother I was still keeping in my head. Therefore, when I finally even lost all of my property, I took the last of my money to pay those guys to kill Brian McCoy, to torture him for what he had done to me, to let him get a taste of my pain. However, I swear to God I didn't tell them to kill that innocent little girl and you, my own son."

Billy had meanwhile taken his father's trembling hand, being aware the man was going to die. The back-flashes reaching his mind showed him that his words were nothing but the truth.

"I'd like to tell you I'm sorry, but I know I can't as this cruelty I did to you and your family is inexcusable, no matter what I would do or say."

No apology in this world could set that right .

I'm a murderer, who even killed his own child, the only person I was still able to love apart from your mother, more than my own, worthless life. The only thing that is left to me is the hope for a merciful God to redeem me of eternal pain." He wasn't able to continue and gasped for a last breath before he looked up to Billy's eyes, in life so similar to his, but already dead. Then he uttered with pain: "I'd give my life to make everything undone if I could. Please, forgive me..."

Billy nodded softly before his father's heart stopped beating.

"Goodbye, Dad," he whispered in a gentle voice, closing the dead man's eyelids softly to cover the hollow eyes, now so similar to his.

The crow watched him with unbelief, a 'sentimental idiot' lying right up on its tongue to be uttered but somehow something in this last rites and the way that they were done kept the bird from saying them.

_He has done what he had to, so give him the chance to say goodbye before he has to go._

**Chapter 11:**

Crossing the cemetery Billy noticed it had surprisingly stopped raining at daybreak, though the air was still as wet as the ground from which he was hardly able to lift his feet.

He felt tired, so tired.

However, when he reached his own grave, he hid behind some other headstone as she was standing there, never mind the muddy ground.

_Leyla._

"Sorry I couldn't come earlier. I've found a new job instead of the old, of which I guess anyhow you wouldn't have liked me doing that. Today I got a reply to my application. They want to hire me for taking care of some kids at an elementary school, even though I'm still attending college and I'm no real teacher yet, but ... I've always dreamed of working with kids." Her excitement vanished from one second to another. "Remember, we always wanted to have at least two ..."

Then she laid down a single rose on his grave, whispering, "Happy birthday, sweetheart. Teenage-time's over. Now you're an old man of twenty." She started crying, trying in vain to wipe away the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I miss you so much , Billy."

He was hardly able to stay in his hiding-place, but he knew he had to, as sometimes time can be a healer, although it takes a lot of it.

A raindrop fell on Leyla's skin as if heaven was also crying, mixing its tears with hers .Then another.

The girl glanced up to the gray sky in expectation of another endless down pour approaching. Nevertheless, surprised she caught sight of a rainbow within the rainy clouds. Nevertheless, she felt cold because of the rain wetting her dark clothes. "Guess it's time to go."

She took a small stone from her pocket and laid it carefully down on the headstone.

"Goodbye," she whispered so tenderly that it had made Billy cry if he had been able to.

However, this attempt only made him conscious again that he was only dead flesh, not the man Leyla had once loved.

Even if he had been able to stay, he would never be human again.

He couldn't. He was so tired, longing for sleep.

All of a sudden a heavy down pour started, offering Leyla no other possibility to escape it than leaving the cemetery. However, she walked slowly, as if it hadn't done a thing to her to be totally soaked up by the cold rain.

"Goodbye," Billy whispered as an answer to hers, picking up the rose that came from his grave, stroking it carefully as if it had been her.

He felt sad and tired, so weak he had to sit down on the cold earth, resting his head against the headstone.

However, when he had closed his eyes, he felt suddenly so warm and well as within the hug of a beloved person. It almost seemed to him as if the small arms of a child were holding him, a little girl's voice calling his name, calling him to come home.

He would, yes, he would. He would return to her adult-cleverness, her crazy way of keeping friends.

Leyla's wounds would heal some day and becoming only scars left or her grief, just like his own he sensed that were starting to heal. He wanted her to be happy, that was all he had ever wanted.

He wished her a long happy life including everything he had never been able to give to her.

His wings were broken, but hers weren't, only injured, but on the verge of healing. Then the child's voice called him again to come home, closer to his ear than before. He felt a small hand taking his, guiding him to a place to rest his soul.

Maybe some time he would also meet Leyla again, joining him there in eternity. Then he would finally be able again to hold her in his arms, forever, without having to let her go again at any time.

He would wait for her until that day, no matter how long it would take, as he felt he had found the first real reason ever he could be patient for.

_**The end**_


End file.
